1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to the field of communications systems, and more particularly, to a system and method for increasing the throughput of a communication system without increasing the required bandwidth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most compression or encoding methods for digital information take the data bits of interest and append a header for control applications on a regular and known pattern basis to form frames of data. These frames are then transmitted over the medium of interest, be it a wireless channel, the internet, a satellite channel, cable, or some other medium. A receiver accepts these frames and uses the header information within each frame to decode the information bits within the frame. The original information data bits of interest are then extracted from the frame.
Typically, the headers have a known fixed sequence of bits usually referred to as a synch pattern. The receiver uses such synch patterns to acquire synchronization in the beginning and during reception or when synchronization is lost. The synch patterns are used as flags to enable the receiver to detect frame boundaries. The exact sequence of bits in the synch pattern depends on the compression or encoding technology. The number of bits and frequency of occurrence will also vary depending on the technology. FIG. 1 illustrates an example data frame with synch, header, and data information.
There are currently a number of techniques for adding additional information to encoded or compressed digital information; however, these techniques either increase the bandwidth required to transmit the information or alter it in a manner that is not reversible. Examples of such techniques include: watermarking, fingerprinting, and steganography. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a method that would allow additional information to be added to encoded or compressed digital information without the loss of any data of interest or an increase in the bandwidth required to transmit the information.
Most advertisement content is conventionally delivered in a concatenated format within a digital video stream or file. Usually, the stream or file is compressed. Advertising information in any form, such as MP3, MPEG2, MPEG4, AMR, etc. can be identified with data bits of interest, such as a tag to link a separate stream of information. A header can be appended for control applications on a regular and known pattern to form frames of data that act as triggers when requested by an application. Frames can then be transmitted over a transmission medium, be it a wireless channel, the internet, a satellite channel, cable, or some other medium.
The receiving application receives these frames and stores them locally on a device such as a computer, mobile device, or set-top-box. The application can use this information in various ways. For example, if the pause button on the remote control is pressed, a prerecorded advertisement segment or a promotion could be presented during the pause period. The advertisement can be interrupted as soon as the play button is pressed and the film continued. Similarly, another button can be selected to show the advertisement in a second screen (screen-on-screen feature).
In order for these advertisements to be delivered to a consumer, increased bandwidth and network resources are required. To account for this additional bandwidth, service providers need to provide additional capacity. Thus, it would be advantageous to have the proposed herein system and method that would allow such content to be delivered without requiring any additional bandwidth or network resources, thereby minimizing the capacity requirements of the network.